The Power Rangers, the team of brightly-coloured characters fighting evil with elaborate stunts, a variety of weapons, and not a little bit of campy and comical adventures, began their journey in Japan in 1975 with the live-action series known as Super Sentai.
The series was discovered in 1984 by television producer Haim Saban: “I was watching these five kids in Spandex fighting rubber monsters and I just fell in love,” he recalls. So much so that he went on to secure the rights for the series.
Saban eventually brought the heroes to US TV, with The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiering in 1993. The show transported the setting to fictional Angel Grove, California, where five “teenagers with attitude”, each assigned their own individual colours and powers, are chosen to defeat an extra-terrestrial sorceress.
Featuring an unusual mash-up of high-flying action footage from the Japanese series blended with American-shot dramatic scenes, the show quickly established its own playful tone and allure. Young audiences were immediately mesmerised by this hyperactive series, and that success was equalled worldwide.
Before long, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became the most-watched children’s television programme in the US, a smash hit franchise brand and a global phenomenon that set new precedents.
As the years went by, the popularity of the Power Rangers remained strong – to the point that the idea of revisiting their origins for the new century began to take hold.
It has always been about fun and inclusiveness and that resonates with kids from all cultures
What would the Rangers look like if they formed inside a real 2017 California high school full of complex kids facing a fast-moving future? The idea was irresistible to Saban – and pretty much everyone who heard it.
“We have a real passion for maintaining the legacy of this franchise. It has always been about fun and inclusiveness, and that resonates with kids from all cultures. So when Lionsgate came to us with a new, exciting vision that paid homage to that spirit, we felt the time was right,” says Saban. “We love that this film goes back to the basics of five teens with attitude. It’s an aspirational story that young kids will relate to and older audiences will be very entertained by. For everyone, it’s a chance to see a brand new generation of Power Rangers in a comical, contemporary and thrilling action story.”
And so, this incarnation of the Power Rangers chronicles how five ordinary teens first transformed from a band of small-town outcasts coping with cyber-bullying, alienation, peer pressures and family issues, into a united team of mighty superheroes who band together to save their hometown, and Earth itself, from an unstoppable evil force lying in wait for 65 million years.
This action-packed adventure stars Dacre Montgomery as Jason (the Red Ranger), a former football star who inadvertently made a career-ending mistake; Naomi Scott as Kimberly (the Pink Ranger), a Queen Bee who fell from grace; RJ Cyler as Billy (the Blue Ranger), a super-smart but socially-challenged kid who has never been able to make a single real friend; Becky G as Trini (the Yellow Ranger), a rebellious loner who never fits in; and Ludi Lin as Zack (the Black Ranger) a tough-guy secretly in an even tougher family situation.
The cast is given added heft by Bill Hader, as the voice of Alpha 5, a robot; Bryan Cranston as Zordon, the original ancient Red Ranger; and Elizabeth Banks as villain Rita Repulsa.
The screenplay is by John Gatins from a story by Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless and Michele Mulroney & Kieran Mulroney; and the film is directed by Dean Israelite.